Interesting Stu. Got any pictures or other details of this car?
MGTurbo wrote:Look at the roofline, door handles, identical.
Yeah, I can see that actually - and I hope those aren't Punto lights!! That'd be much worse than the Mondeo lights on the Noble!
X80 was too 'girly' for the market it was aimed for hence the butch look.
Really?! Funny that, because some people here on another thread were saying that the 220 coupe looked girly as well. I don't agree though that just because something is graceful in design that it is necessarily "girly". I also don't think you have to make something "rude and in your face" to make it a man's car. While I do like the SV's looks (and I can see that it is did start out as the X80 and basically got a massive bodykit attached to it!) I do think it is a bit vulgar. That's not a criticism in this case though, because its looks match its temperament.
I also think there's room though for a more subtly styled car with more graceful and flowing lines like the X80. Actually, what could be a better outcome than to have the X80 become the Rover 200 coupe MKII - it must be still on a design shelf somewhere. All I would change would be the front to harken back in style to the original (well not the really old P5!) coupe.
As you say, Rover do need to concentrate on the cars that will make volume sales - the "bread and butter" cars. However... think of it this way: It's accepted that the flagship models bestow an image of desirability down to the more common and base models. Even if you don't sell many flagship models, their very existence helps sell the basic "volume" models. Also, with the amount of Impreza WRXs on our roads these days, you could nearly consider that market to be a volume market anyway! I'm sure there are plenty of people who want that kind of performance, don't want the predictable understeering of constant all wheel drive and want to have some fun with RWD, don't like the looks of the Impreza and don't like the image they have. What would they go for? I reckon this could fill a market segment that has been created by Subaru due to their very ubiquitousness!
John Towers - would you like to pay for my flight over to your next board meeting?
Martin_vitsport wrote:Will start saving my pennies for the R version, might afford one by the time there classics!
Was thinking the same thing Martin!
far to expensive
